4 BofA execs quit in wake of Enron's fall

Christian Berthelsen, Chronicle Staff Writer

Published
4:00 am PST, Thursday, January 31, 2002

Three Bank of America executives who were managing the bank's business with Enron Corp. have resigned their jobs during the past week, and a fourth said yesterday he will resign and leave the bank soon.

The departures come in the wake of $231 million in losses Bank of America reported during the fourth quarter as a result of its exposure to Enron, the energy-trading giant that collapsed late last year amid a loss of investor confidence brought on by revelations of secret partnerships that hid debt.

left their jobs at the end of last week, a bank spokeswoman confirmed. The bank said Steve Bragg of New York, a fourth executive associated with the Enron account, will leave in the coming weeks to "pursue other opportunities."

About $210 million of BofA fourth-quarter losses came from loan charge-offs,

and $21 million came from a write-down of what the bank called "securities related to a collateralized loan obligation."

Eloise Hale, another spokeswoman, said most of the losses were unsecured. She declined to specify the precise structure of BofA's lending relationship with Enron or to elaborate beyond statements the bank has already made about its losses.

BofA said it has $272 million in further exposure to Enron, including a $46 million untapped line of credit. Of the remaining exposure, $42 million is unsecured.

Tamalis was a client manager in Bank of America's natural resources group, which handles creditors in the energy and power sector. Bragg, the head of that group, is expected to leave the bank in the coming weeks.

Bateman and Allred were credit products officers, charged with managing risk exposure for the bank.

Bank of America confirmed that all four executives were connected to its Enron account, but declined to specify the terms of their departures or to say whether they were related to the Enron collapse.

Tamalis and Allred did not return calls to their homes in Houston. Bateman and Bragg could not be reached.